Excerpt from Kerry speech that can stand on its own: Bush-Cheney Doctrine

In this part of Kerry's speech on dissent today, he counters what he knows will be the tired responses of the RNC and WH - Kerry is a defeatist - Kerry is pessimistic.

He does this by labeling the TRUE defeatists and exposing the Bush-Cheney Doctrine. A good meme to pass around.

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The true defeatists today are not those who call for recognizing the facts on the ground in Iraq. The true defeatists are those who believe America is so weak that it must sacrifice its principles to the pursuit of illusory power.

The true pessimists today are not those who know that America can handle the truth about the Administration's boastful claim of "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. The true pessimists are those who cannot accept that America's power and prestige depend on our credibility at home and around the world. The true pessimists are those who do not understand that fidelity to our principles is as critical to national security as our military power itself.

And the most dangerous defeatists, the most dispiriting pessimists, are those who invoke September 11th to argue that our traditional values are a luxury we can no longer afford.

Let's call it the Bush-Cheney Doctrine.

According to the Bush-Cheney Doctrine, alliances and international institutions are now disposable--and international institutions are dispensable or even despicable.

According to the Bush-Cheney Doctrine, we cannot foreswear the fool's gold of information secured by torturing prisoners or creating a shadow justice system with no rules and no transparency.

According to the Bush-Cheney Doctrine, unwarranted secrecy and illegal spying are now absolute imperatives of our national security.

According to the Bush-Cheney Doctrine, those who question the abuse of power question America itself.

According to the Bush-Cheney doctrine, an Administration should be willing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on the Iraq war, but unwilling to spend a few billion dollars to secure the American ports through which nuclear materials could make their way to terrorist cells.

According to the Bush-Cheney Doctrine, executive powers trump the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers.

According to the Bush-Cheney Doctrine, smearing administration critics is not only permissible, but necessary--and revealing the identity of a CIA agent is an acceptable means to hide the truth.

The raw justification for abandoning so many American traditions exposes the real danger of the Bush-Cheney Doctrine. We all understand we are in a long struggle against jihadist extremism. It does represent a threat to our vital security interests and our values. Even the Bush-Cheney Administration acknowledges this is preeminently an ideological war, but that's why the Bush-Cheney Doctrine is so ill-equipped to fight and win it.

Our enemies argue that all our claims about advancing universal principles of human rights and mutual respect disguise a raw demand for American dominance. They gain every time we tolerate or cover up abuses of human rights in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay, or among sectarian militias in Iraq, and especially when we defiantly disdain the rules of international law.

Our enemies argue that our invasion and occupation of Iraq reflect an obsession with oil supplies and commercial opportunities. They gain when our president and vice president, both former oil company executives, continue to pursue an oil-based energy strategy, and provide vast concessions in Iraq to their corporate friends.

And so there's the crowning irony: the Bush-Cheney Doctrine holds that many of our great traditions cannot be maintained; yet the Bush-Cheney policies, by abandoning those traditions, give Osama bin Laden and his associates exactly what they want and need to reinforce their hate-filled ideology of Islamic solidarity against the western world.

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"1. Blow stuff up. 2. Take money."

Bottom of the barrel of human morality/ethics. It's just,...incredible!!!!

into its own file. Too bad Kerry didn't talk like this in 2004: it's his best speech -- and his most brilliant analysis -- ever.

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Edit: head correction.

but most of his criticisms of Bush didn't make it to the six o'clock news.

It will be interesting to see if this does.

daily coverage.

The newer issues, like a withdrawal plan for Iraq COULDN'T have been submitted in 2004 as Iraq had not even had ONE election at that time and no government in place to turn over control.

Things changed. There have been three elections now and a functioning government could form if we force them to make it happen by being ready to pull out if they don't.

This speech is so rich that you can literally pull a couple of paragraphs out and stand them on their own.

He definitely wrote this speech.

He is putting everything together that I have been seeing. I agree with the others that the media, that god awful lousy media, will blow off the best speech made since, well I don't know the last time I've read such an incredible speech.

I'm still digesting it all; I feel overloaded with the truth, like I've been starving for it for SO LONG. Back to the media -- why don't they give the people some good nutrition. Why is it only junk food and stupid, unthinking punditry on TV day and night?

Anyway, JK will be on This Week on ABC tomorrow.

Great point, beachmom. That's why I don't have television and get my news online, primarily from DU. If more people refused to pay for "junk food" on TV it would force cm to change. We have been without for years and have no regrets.

This was a great speach by JK and I'm still enjoying the wonderful flavor!

It is the "Conservative Doctrine" or "Republican Doctrine" that needs a stake driven through its heart.

The BushCO/neoconster administration are extortionists. They destroy every ideal, every tradition, every person in their way.

John Kerry, you are still my President. I believe in you. Always will.

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perfect

on C-Span. Wonderful.

K & R!